SSD: The need for speed.

Does anyone have a Solid State Drive in their computer? I didn't until last week, mainly because, although I had read they were very fast, their capacity compared to their price, made them seem not to be worth the trouble. I can now report that they are indeed very fast. Fast enough to be a delight to use.

I had built a new computer, a month or two ago, which turned out to be a huge leap forward from what I'd been using, previously. Even so, the hard drive still went just as fast/slow as it always had. So now that drive still sees use for programs and data that do not benefit much from speed, while the SSD holds the operating system and page file, and delivers all kinds of satisfaction, while it loads up in seconds.

I've been interested in these as well. You're right. The problem has come down to storage capacity, but they are probably comparable to capacities from a decade ago. 32 gb flash drives and micro sd cards are now commonplace but back around then they were only just coming onto the market at 128 mb while the clunky 250 mb zip drives were on the way out.

With PC hardware, at least until it is all at least solid state with fiber optic bus, there is always a bottleneck at some point. If your processor and hard drive are fast, then the RAM and bus could end up a bottleneck.

It also comes down to what you use it for. Someone who sends email once a day could get by with Commodore 64 performance and a couple megabytes of storage. But, producing and rendering hours of multimedia content however would optimally require the latest equipment for maximum productivity.

It translates, as of now, into about 1Gb per $1. That's not bad. My SSD drive is 120Gb and that is fine for Windows 7. Naturallly, large hardware drives are a must for actual storage. Reality check: my first hard drive was a huge, heavy thing, and held 5Mb. Haha

Windows reports to me that I currently have no bottlenecks, whereas the HD was quite a big one, previously. Everything is running at a comparable speed to everything else, with only the memory marginally faster. Had I known more of current technology when I built this thing, I would have bought an i5-2500k processor, but as it is, it's an i3-2100. Pretty damn quick though, nonetheless.

I would like to check out these solid state drives. Thanks for bringing that up, even if it is another item heaped on my plate. In return, I have found that solar is getting down to about a thousand for one kilowatt hour panel. I'm estimating some few years of use would pay each panel off, assuming petrol based energy isn't getting cheaper.

I had a great deal of experience with solar panels when I lived on a trimaran, and while they were inadequate in Canadian latitudes, they became very useful once I found myself in the Tropic of Capricorn. In fact, I was able to get by on nothing but solar power for several years, in the absence of any other power. No engine, no wind generator. Price was always the limiting issue, though, so it is good to hear those prices are becoming more do-able.

Would any of you guys like to post the particular make/model of your SS drives? I'm taking the forum's advice from like 2 years ago and building my next computer when this current laptop fails. I'd appreciate any information.

That is more of a middle man between you and whoever you get your equipment from. It might be okay for price comparisons.

I've referred to http://www.tomshardware.com/ to get up to speed and gone down to the local Chinese dude's family business for PC components. They'll give you OEM pricing on your OS if you buy the essential hardware components along with it for a PITA DIY job. Usually looking through the phone book for computer component shops in the area will get you equipment the same day, warranty, service and any questions or assistance taken care of. They only get a little twitchy about plugging in the CPU to the main board in my experience.

The reason I mentioned OWC is that their drives have often been reviewed, and they seem about the fastest. I figure if you're crazy enough to buy an SSD at all, then you might want to go for the fastest. I would do that if I were to buy another one. Speed is the only reason to do it at all.

Generally very good. However, be wary: a lot of their money comes from buying up 100,000 of some item just as it's discontinued, and then selling it new. When that happens, you purchase something just in time to watch it and all accessories vanish from the shelves.

Your #1 weapon is research on products. Get familiar with their life cycle; for most, it's three years. The sweet spot is 18 months in when it's fully debugged, economies of scale have kicked in, and the company is trying to use it to build market share thus wants more units sold than high margins.